Anyway, I’ve heard so much great stuff about the A Modern Faerie Tale series and apparently my new "thing" is Faery and all things related so I picked these up for my recent trips out of town. I'm not sure if this is a trilogy or if these are the first three in a longer series, but here's my take:
Book: Tithe by Holly Black Book Count: 25
The first book in the series introduces us to Kaye, a girl who is not your average teenager. She's been raised as a roadie for her mother's various bands, grew up with invisible faeries as best friends, and when a strange attack brings Kaye and her mother back to her childhood home, she comes face to face with who and what she really is.
It definitely lived up to the dark and edgy reviews I had read. There were a few slow parts, but I liked the story overall. It wasn't exactly what I expected, but not in a bad way. My biggest complaint: there wasn't enough. When the story was over, I felt like there wasn't enough development, or, I don't know. What was there was good, but I just wanted more.
Book Title: Valiant by Holly BlackBook Count: 26
Which leads us into why I picked this one up! :) But Valiant isn't about Kaye and Ellen and Corny and Roiben. This book introduces us to Val and her gang of misfits, taking us into a whole different realm of Faery-land as mortals and fey alike struggle to survive as faeries are being murdered.
I actual liked this book better than Tithe. The characters felt more developed and real all within the span of a book the same size. And as it were, it isn't an actual sequel to Tithe, but merely the second book in the series (trilogy?), one can read this book without having read the others and still be okay.
Book Title: Ironside by Holly Black Book Count: 27
This was actually the sequel to Tithe. This story follows more closely Kaye and Roiben's relationship and pulls in characters from Valiant as well. Ironside was definitely a place where Kaye did more growing up, continuing from Tithe. There was more at stake for her here and therefore more for her to consider in her actions. It pushed to the forefront that there isn't always one right answer and not everything can be clearly answered in black or white.
Overall, these books were very remniscent of the Melissa Marr Wicked Lovely series. They switch their focus, the second book in both series focusing on different characters with cameo appearances from characters we've already met.
Although I enjoyed these books enough, if I had to make a recommendation on Faerie stories, I'd go with Wicked Lovely. For me, the character development and and perspective shifts worked better for me and overall, I just enjoyed the stories more.
2 comments:
Thanks for introducing me to knew things, they all have beautiful covers too and I'm a sucker for those!
Holly Black has such amazing covers! It's exactly what I would want - a little dark, edgy, and with that wow factor.
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